cloud

Dropbox and Microsoft might not seem like the most obvious of bedfellows, what with Microsoft already having its own OneDrive cloud storage service, but sure enough the two are teaming up to integrate Dropbox into the Office apps for iOS and Android. The pairing, which will be enabled when Microsoft pushes out new versions of its Office apps in a few weeks time, will open the door to direct access to files stored in Dropbox from the Office apps themselves, as well as embed Office editing directly into the Dropbox app. While it may seem counter-productive for Microsoft, it could make a big difference for Office adoption across Apple and Google's platforms.

Amazon is offering unlimited photo storage to all of its Prime subscribers, adding Prime Photos to the list of perks included in the shipping service. Launched first on the poorly-selling Amazon Fire Phone, Prime Photos automatically uploads images not only from the retailer's own handset and its Fire tablets, but from iOS and Android devices in general thanks to new apps for each platform. Desktop apps for Windows and Mac throw photos from there into the cloud too, and the combined gallery can then be accessed across multiple platforms including consoles and set-top boxes.

Earlier this year, we relayed to you info about a service dubbed “Nearby”, which is believed to be Google’s way of having otherwise disparate devices in communication with one another. It seems that service might be nearing our devices, though it’s not entirely clear how Google plans to occupy this space just yet. With several references to a service called Co-presence — which may be the back-end functionality for Nearby — this interconnectivity we once discussed might be bigger than originally thought.

Google has made another acquisition, this time snapping up Firebase. If you’ve not heard of Firebase, that’s alright, nobody will fault you for that. Their service is meant to allow Developers easy cloud sync with apps, and have that data synced to device in real-time. the Firebase crew will all join Google’s Cloud Platform team, which Google says gives them “the best end-to-end platform for mobile application development”. Existing Developers using Firebase will see improvements automatically, with no additional work needed.

Dropbox has added Touch ID support to its app for iPhone and iPad, putting a biometric barrier in the way of accessing files saved in the cloud storage system. The security addition, which builds on Apple's opening up of Touch ID as an authenticator for third-party apps in iOS 8, joins the existing PIN code lock which can optionally be enabled, demanding your fingerprint before it will let you browse through folders or upload new files. It comes at the tail-end of a PR war for Dropbox, as it attempts to distance itself and its security measures from a recent hack.

With all the hoopla around cloud services, their leaks, and their security holes, one name has managed to remain out of the media's spotlight. At least so far. It would, however, be naive to presume that Dropbox is infallible and perfect just because of that. In fact, this latest revelation just proves that it isn't immune from bugs that would irreversibly lose data as well. Luckily, at least if you believe the company, it only affects a rather small subset of Dropbox users.

This week the folks at Microsoft are making clear their intentions to create a top-level experience for the Surface Pro 3. Not that they weren’t doing so before, but now with the help of Adobe, things will become a whole lot more visual. With Adobe Creative Cloud specifically, users will be able to make the most gorgeous work they’ve ever done come to life with touch - all on the Surface Pro 3. Meanwhile Microsoft gave every Adobe MAX event attendee this week a free Surface Pro 3 - handy of them!

One of the biggest reasons people cite gravitating towards cable cutting is that it better facilitates their needs: many in the modern world are not able to plop down on the couch at a specific time to watch a show, instead catching it later through an online service or by downloading the episode. Comcast has decided to adjust to these needs, announcing that it is "setting your TV and recordings free."

Realizing that its former enterprise territory is no longer just its own, BlackBerry has launched Blend, a tool that plays nice with other platforms. With BlackBerry Blend, you will be able to access BBM and important files stored on your BlackBerry smartphone, whether from a PC, a Mac, an iOS or an Android device.

Ramping up again its marketing tactics, Microsoft has announced a time-limited offer for OneDrive across all supported platforms. While Microsoft's cloud storage solution probably can't compete yet in terms of popularity or pricing scheme, it is trying to entice users with something that's quite hard to pass up: 30 GB of free storage.